After three years at war, the High Lord of the Forest returns to his lands, a victorious wolf leader intent on claiming his mate. Instead Ciar finds an empty bed and a court with no recollection of the woman he loved. Following her long-cold trail proves far easier than facing what awaits him at the end.

Sabine s first instinct is to beg her beloved to leave. The High Lord s mother hired a witch to curse Sabine, desperate to wipe the lowborn wolf from her son s mind. But the spell worked too well, and Sabine has vanished from the thoughts of everyone who sees her. Including her own family.

The edges of his memory already blurring, Ciar and Sabine must race to find a way to reverse the spell. Yet every searing moment together is not enough to stop the curse s inexorable progress. His only chance is to bind Sabine to him too tightly to be forgotten, before she disappears once and for all.

This is a very short read, clocking in at just 41 pages. For such a short novella this really packs an emotional punch. Sabine and Ciar were going to be mated (this was personal choice – they were very much in love) when Ciar got called away to war. While he was gone, Sabine was cursed by her lover’s mother. Now no one remembers her – not even her mother.When Ciar returns from war to find Sabine gone from his home, he immediately searches her out. He’s surprised to find her living in a cabin in the woods, cutoff from everyone and everything. Once she shares with him what happened, he determines to fix it by getting the witch to remove the curse. But..will he remember?

I loved the connection between Ciar and Sabine. Ciar loved Sabine just as much as she loved him. I can’t imagine how solitary and depressing it would be to not be remembered by anyone. Ciar remembers Sabine when he first returns, but forgets her soon after. While I would have liked to see this explored further (I think the emotional impact could have been much harder) I think Rogers did a credible job of making it work considering the page count. I wish there had been more on the final resolution. Especially more about Ciar’s mother, and her part in what happened to Sabine. In the end it seemed too abrupt. I also want to read more about Ciar’s 2nd and his new wife. I’m hoping there will be another entry in the series featuring them.

Ok. I’ll be the first to admit it. I’m a slacker. That’s the reason that this post, which is normally up on Mondays, is going up just now. And in the middle of the afternoon, no less! Sorry about that. I’ll try to mend my slacker ways but I fear it’s all set in stone. 🙂

So…getting the girls ready for school. Holy shit it’s expensive. As my oldest gets older the prices just go up and up! Oy. I had to register them both today and for the oldest it was $215.00 and the youngest $70.00. That last number seemed like a dream compared to the high school charges. Geez. Oh well, whatcha gonna do, right? I certainly hope so.

Giveaway: Violet…I sent an email last week but haven’t heard from you. I just sent another so please check your spam folder to make sure it didn’t end up there. 🙂

On to what I read last week:

I started off the week with Lick by Kylie Scott. I really liked this story of a woman who wakes up after a 21st birthday binge in Vegas and finds herself married to a rock star. The book tells us their ups and downs and everything in between. You can read my full review here. 4 out of 5

Next up was The Right Wrong Number by Barbara Delinsky. This was a free story I picked up about a woman who is excited about a business deal and calls a friend to tell them about it. She doesn’t get her friend, however, she gets a guy named Charlie. The two actually hit it off and have a long conversation but then the woman drops her phone and the call ends. She tries to get him back on the phone but has no idea which wrong number she dialed. The story was cute and sweet but really short. 3 out of 5

Blurred by Kim Karr was next on the list to read. The story, if you’ve been following this series, shows us Ben’s side of the story. Ben was Dahlia’s boyfriend at one time. The novella takes us through Ben’s emotional turmoil after his mother dies and him trying to get his life back together. I think it was a good story as it takes care of all the details and back story for Ben that won’t crowd up his love story, Frayed, when it releases. You can read my full review here. 3.5 out of 5

Her Secret, His Surprise by Paula Altenburg is the story of a couple who have a one night stand. She finds herself preggo but when she calls the bar that she met him at (he was the bartender) they say they’d never heard of him. Two years later and the man who is the father of her child shows up to be her administrative assistant. She’s not sure she wants someone who is a drifter, from job to job, to be in her daughter’s life. Unfortunately for her the minute he sees his daughter he knows. He’s not what he seems but he’s not sure he can make her believe he’s solid. Good story – very enjoyable. 3.75 out of 5 (read for Book Binge)

For Her Spy Only by Robyn DeHart is a novella about a woman who has a one night stand with a noble who has no desire to marry and no desire to have children. Six years later the noble is looking for a certain cartographer and he finds her instead – who is the cartographer’s widow. This was a short but sweet story. I liked both the characters and the story. 3.5 out of 5 (read for Book Binge)

Rock Addiction by Nalini Singh. I know this isn’t coming out til Sept. 2nd but when I got the ARC I couldn’t stand to not read it. Unfortunately I didn’t care for it as much as I wanted to. Still a good story but I did have some issues with it. I’ll post my review closer to the release date. 3.5 out of 5

Wilder’s Mate by Moira Rogers is a kind of a paranormal western but set in an alternate universe. The first book in the Bloodhound series, the story is about a woman who is searching for her mentor who was kidnapped by vampires and the man who helps her – that she happens to fall in love with. It was an interesting story and I was intrigued. I wish it had some more back story about the Bloodhounds, one of which our hero was. Definitely needed more on that. 3.5 out of 5

Claimed by the Alpha by Renee George is a short story about a woman who has been fighting cancer for 4 years. The man who loves her dearly is a wolf shifter and wants to change her but she refuses. The story is about him taking some definite risks and trying to make her see his side of things. It was cute but very short. 3 out of 5

Last for the week was Fangs of Anarchy by Dakota Cassidy
– a 5 part story. It’s really a (approx.) 200 page book that’s broken
up into 5 parts. The story follows Claire who is a werewolf and has
just killed her alpha. She is aided in disposing of the body by Irish
who is a vampire and president of his MC. The men in this story might
be in MC’s but really it’s not an MC read. It’s a love story between
Claire and Irish with a mystery that is the catalyst to throw them
together. I liked the stories, the world building, the romance and the
humor in these. I’ll definitely be reading more of this series in the
future.Fangs of Anarchy –
Killing the Alpha
(Part 1) 4 out of 5
Forbidden Alpha (Part 2) Girl Most Lycan 3.5 out of 5

From the time we announced the final Red Rock ebook in 2009, people have been asking us when we’d go back to the Sanctuary world and write more about werewolves and their witch rivals. In the beginning we didn’t want to return–we had our four books and our two prequel novellas, and those were the stories we had to tell. But people kept asking, and we kept saying, “Well, what if…okay, no, but maybe if…”

A watched pot never boils, and I’m starting to think a watched plot is the same way. The harder we tried to force ourselves to come up with the right story, the more they slipped away. Finally we set the idea aside for a while, reluctantly admitting that maybe it had been too long in any case. We’d missed our window. It was time to work on other–

BOOM! That was our idea, knocking us head over heels. It hit us so hard we sat down and wrote Haunted Sanctuary instead of the book we were supposed to be writing. It wasn’t the story we’d originally imagined. It takes place in a new town, with a new cast of characters, and is set several years after the end of Red Rock Pass. You don’t have to be familiar with any of the previous books to pick up Haunted Sanctuary…

…but hey. Any excuse to give away books is good for us!

THE BLOG TOUR

Thanks to the generosity of Samhain Publishing–and with the assistance of many awesome bloggers–we get to spend the next twenty days giving away 80 ebooks! Those of you who haven’t read the Red Rock Pass books will have twenty different chances to win the entire set in the ebook format of your choice.

In honor of that, we’re going to be revisiting some of our favorite scenes from each of the four books…and maybe showing a few sneaky peeks at the next chapter in the Sanctuary Universe!

TODAY’S SNIPPET

Sanctuary’s Price: The Reluctant Hero
aka Do I Have to Keep Saving the Day? I’m Tired.

Dylan is a character who I have always loved. I’ve loved him all the more because he is not a badass alpha. He’s not as strong as the dominant wolves, either physically or magically. He doesn’t have Keith & Joe’s badass combat training, either.

But even though he’s just a mid-level wolf who’d rather be in the library than fighting bad guys, that never stops him from fighting when he has to. Dylan doesn’t charge into battle confident that he’ll win. He goes into it knowing there’s a good chance he’ll die–but if it helps the people he loves, he’ll take that chance.

I’ve always thought that made him way more badass than the other heroes. 😉 And a little scarier, too. There’s nothing more dangerous than a hero willing to sacrifice anything…

* * *

By the time he managed to set fire to the damp wood in the dusty old fireplace, Dylan had resorted to giving himself half-hearted pep talks. “Could be worse. You could be dead. Could be back in Helena. Could be stuck listening to Bobby bitch about how they fucked up the Battlestar Galactica finale.”

The soggy wood in the fireplace smoked at him in agreement. The stench would have been bad enough to a human nose, but for a werewolf…

Dylan sighed and pushed himself to his feet. The rain that afternoon had drenched the stack of firewood out back, but he hadn’t thought to bring any of it inside before this evening. Not when the house was still so far from livable.

He’d had ample opportunity over the last month to make it so, but he’d gotten comfortable in Cindy’s house. Even when things hadn’t been entirely blissful, he’d had the luxury of a roof over his head and the knowledge there was plenty of time to renovate the rundown little house. Plenty of time to make it his.
He eyed the bedroll he’d begged from Brynn—the bag belonged to Joe, and was high quality, at least—and squared his shoulders. The house had four walls and a roof that mostly didn’t leak. The plumbing worked sometimes and it wasn’t so cold he’d freeze to death hunkered down in the sleeping bag.

Far from livable…but he’d make do. He always did.

With a feeble fire lit, Dylan turned his attention back to the scarred wooden table. The renovation plans he’d been working on had been shoved haphazardly to one side, leaving space for the sack Brynn had pushed on him along with the sleeping bag. Upending it on the table revealed two boxes of toaster pastries, a box of crackers, three cans of soda and a bag of licorice.

The sight made his chest ache even as he smiled. Just snack food, and probably the first things Brynn had put her hands on when she’d realized he had no intention of staying long enough to face any questions Joe might have about Dylan’s sudden change in residence. But Dylan had known Brynn for years, maybe even knew her better than her older sister did. Licorice and strawberry pastries—Brynn’s nervous comfort food. Something she clung to when life was overwhelming.

And badass warrior alpha wolf Joe Mitchell had obviously been doing his best to make sure she had anything she needed, no matter how silly those things were. It was sweet.

It sucked.

Guilt stabbed at him, and he snatched up the box of crackers and tore open the cardboard top. Brynn had gone through hell, and she had Joe. Her sister Abby had gone through hell, and she had Keith.

Dylan had a smoking fireplace and a toilet that didn’t flush consistently.

Sera Sinclaire is a New Orleans rarity: a submissive coyote trapped in a town overrun by dominant shapeshifters. Worse, she lacks the willpower to deny the alphas-in-shining-armor who need her soothing presence, even when their protectiveness threatens to crush her hard-won self-reliance.

The only shifter she doesn’t want to push away is Julio Mendoza, a wolf so dominant he’s earned a place on the Southeast council.

Julio doesn’t have the luxury of indulging in the vacation his psychic shrink insists he needs. He can’t turn his back on responsibilities he’s beginning to wish he’d never shouldered. When an obsessive ex endangers Sera, though, instinct drives him to get her out of town. Watching her come to life outside the city makes him feel like he’s finally done something right, and her touch ignites desire he doesn’t want to ignore.

But soon, lighthearted flirting becomes a dangerous game of seduction, where every day spent falling into each other is another day avoiding the truth. Sera’s ex isn’t the only one who’d disapprove of their relationship. There are wolves who would kill to get Sera out of Julio’s life—starting with his own blood kin.

Sera is a coyote and in the shapeshifting world they are like the redneck poor cousin to the wolf shifters. In fact most of the wolves just want to kill them off and be done with it. Sera does have some friends how that she’s left and divorced her controlling husband and moved to New Orleans. She especially likes hanging out with Julio Mendoza. When Sera’s ex shows up she knows she needs to get away and Julio offers her the opportunity to do just that.

Julio hides his emotions well. He’s not recovered from the torture he received (in the last book) but he’s on the council and helping people is what he does. Unfortunately this doesn’t help HIM heal. It’s suggested that he take a vacation and when he decides to take Sera away they both get a break from real life.

Julio and Sera take off in Jackson’s convertible and make no plans. They just drive and stop whenever they want. They end up in Florida in Panama City Beach and meet the alpha down there. They find out just how much damage the previous council had done and the effect it had on the lives of the wolves pack.

The couple, during their time together, find that they are matched perfectly in bed and other ways as well. Sera is a submissive coyote but she also wants to be submissive in bed. Julio, being the dominant wolf that he is is all for that. Sera isn’t into heavy bdsm and Julion’s definitely with the program when it comes to what Sera wants in bed.

During their time away they also run into some problems with Sera’s ex, Julio’s father and figuring out exactly what it will take for Julio to do his job on the council.

This is book 5 in the Southern Arcana series. It was a nice addition to the series but definitely not my favorite. I liked Julio and Sera together but after the last 4 stories I don’t think there was enough conflict in it for me.

Sera and Julio came together pretty easily. They were attracted to each other and they acted on that attraction – something we don’t see all that often in romance any more. Lol There were some issues with Sera being a coyote and that did cause some issues but mostly with others outside of the relationship – it had no effect on Julio at all.

Overall the book was good and I will definitely be reading future books in this series. You gotta love those wolf shapeshifters. 🙂

Like this:

How the heck are ya? I’m doing pretty well. The weather today is wonderful – about 79 degrees but the sun isn’t too hot – love that! That’s the kind of weather we should have all the time. lol

Nothing much happened this past week. I did manage to FINALLY use the gift certificate to the spa that my hubby gave me for my b-day back in May – yay me! I got a pedicure and a hydrating body scrub and wrap with a 30 minute massage. Dear God I was a complete wet noodle when I was done. It felt incredible and I just want to do that every week. lol

Alright on to what I read:

First up was Because of You by Cathy Maxwell that I read for Book Binge. This was the story of a vicar’s daughter, Samantha, who is alone in the world and the town that she has served so well in nursing them is now practically kicking her to the curb. They manage to marry her off to Yale who is the second son of a duke – but they don’t know that. They think he’s just some poor stranger – and they’re still willing to marry her off. The nerve! Anyway, all Yale’s lies come out and Samantha has a terrible time learning to trust him again, which I would too, quite frankly. The love story is good and though I wanted to punch both the hero and the heroine at different times during the book it ended up being really good. 4 out of 5

After that was a short story by Tam Ames called Take a Breath. This is the short story of Eli, an ER doc that has been scarred by life and his experiences in the ER. He meets James and despite not liking each other at first they end up seeing something in each other that brings them together. This was so darned cute and I just loved seeing the two men stutter their way through the romance. So cute! I love ending a book with a big smile on my face. 4.5 out of 5 (free on Goodreads)

I must have been on a short story and Tam Ames kick because I then read the three shorts I Dare You, I Dare You…Again and I Dare You, Back (all 3 available for free on Goodreads). The first, I Dare You has Derek daring his roommate Steven to go to a Halloween party with him and make a move on his crush, Cory. Steven can’t resist a dare and soon Cory and Steven are making wonderful Halloween memories. Very cute. This was a re-read for me but it was just as good the second time around. 4 out of 5

In I Dare You…Again Derek AGAIN dares Steven and this time it’s to tell Cory that he loves him. He DOES he’s just not gotten up the guts to actually say the words yet. This was just as cute as the previous book. Derek and Cory are adorable together and I’m so glad we got to see a little more into their relationship. 4 out of 5

Last was I Dare You, Back. Steven and Cory now dare Derek to sit down with his ex, the one he hasn’t seen in two years, and talk/listen to him for just one hour. Unfortunately Derek is having none of it and doesn’t know if he can ever forgive Jaden for breaking his heart so thoroughly. I loved seeing Derek get a dare after him handing them out like candy to Steven. Poor Derek was just well, traumatized, but his heartbreak with Jaden and when he sees him again he knows he doesn’t even want to talk to him. When Steven, Cory and their other roommate befriend Jaden Derek feels betrayed and goes into silent mode. It was interesting to see things from Derek’s point of view. I felt so bad for him when it came to Jaden and wanted him to sit and listen as his friends just wanted what was best for him. Good story. 4 out of 5

After that was Dragon’s Moon by Lucy Monroe. This is book 4 in the Children of the Moon series and it was a good one. We have Eirik who is a dragon/raven shifter who moves some of his bird shifting clan to live with the Sinclair clan. He meets Ciara and they have a strange attraction but she wants nothing to do with him since he’s the dragon that killed her brother 7 years earlier. On top of that she’s having visions of the sacred stone that belongs to her people. It was a really great story and I can’t wait to read more in this series. You can read my review at Book Binge here. 4.25 out of 5

Impulse by Moira Rogers was my next read. This is the story of Sera, a coyote shifter, and Julio a wolf shifter. Sera is submissive as a coyote and in the bedroom and Julio’s definitely a more dominant man. You can read more about them and my review of the book on Wednesday.

Heart of the Dragon’s Realm by Karalynn Lee is a fantasy story with romantic elements. The story revolves around Kimri who is given by her monarch brother to another king for marriage. There is a small romance in the story but it’s more about Kimri getting used to her new way of life and then trying to save her brother. It was a good story. I’ll post my review in a couple of weeks. 3.75 out of 5

Lean on Me by HelenKay Dimon is the next story in the Holloway series and it was a good one. This has Mitch Anders trying to hook up with a girl he always liked from High School who is back in town. Cassidy is definitely attracted to Mitch but she’s got so much more on her mind than hooking up – like not freezing to death because she has nowhere to stay and no money. I liked Cassidy a lot and though Mitch annoyed me at times it was a nice addition to the series. 3.5 out of 5

Charmed Spirits by Carrie Ann Ryan is the story of Jordan who is back in her home town to clean out her grandmother’s house and put it on the market. She is a witch and while she was growing up was ostracized for that. Matt was her high school boyfriend and he thinks he just wants to be friends but he can’t stop his attraction. This was cute – a little painful to read as some people can be so cruel but then the heroine had her own growing up to do. Cute story. You can read my full review here. 3 out of 5

A Notorious Countess Confesses by Julie Anne Long is book 7 in the Pennyroyal Green series. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy reading Long’s books. She stirs emotions in me that don’t normally come out while reading and I love that. This book was really good – Adam the Vicar’s story – and worth reading. I’ll post my review later this month. 4.5 out of 5

Last for the week was My Fair Dork by Daisy Harris – book 8 in the Men of Holsum College series. In this story we meet Owen who befriends Harold but there ends up being so much more between them. I’ll post my review later this week.

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